ArcheAge is free-to-play in North America and Europe

It’s finally out there, it’s official and it’s just as we were expecting it to be: ArcheAge is going to be free-to-play in North America and Europe, Trion Worlds officially revealed in a forum post by Community Manager Evan “Scapes” Berman. Scapes briefly mentions the Russian ArcheAge version and its changes to the original model, with publisher Mail.ru opting for free-to-play and having quite a bit of profit with it – something that we suspect may have tipped the balance for the Western version of ArcheAge.

Scapes said the following: “Allow me to say this here and now: both Trion Worlds and XLGames want ArcheAge to be a free-to-play sandbox that fits our “No Tricks, No Traps” vision and will make development decisions for to achieve that goal in Trion’s territories.”

He also gave a brief idea of when players could get their hands on the game. While ArcheAge is “currently in an initial Friends and Family Alpha meaning the tester group is extremely small and nigh-internal”, the alpha is going to be expanded in coming weeks following Game Developer Conference this month. As for the closed beta, which will be NDA free, no specific date was revealed, but Trion Worlds is planning to “have the best, fastest launch possible.” Trion Worlds is also working on a new ArcheAge website.

This reveal marks the end of all speculation on ArcheAge’s business model: it’s free-to-play. Are you pleased with this choice?